The traditional way of dispensing wine is by the bottle. It is also desirable to be able to sell wine by the glass. This is difficult when wine is packaged in bottles only, because wine is notoriously susceptible to oxygen degradation over a very short period of time. Thus, if a glass of wine is purchased by a buyer, the rest of the bottle will have to be thrown away if it is not consumed in a relatively short period of time of a few hours. The packaging for wine in bottles also presents a substantial cost.
There have been some developments in apparatus for prolonging the life of a bottle of wine when the wine is served by the glass. In one method, wine is served by the bottle, but the bottles are purged with nitrogen or another non-oxygen gas. These systems provide an extended life of the wine, but generally not more than a few weeks.
Another problem with dispensing wine by the glass is that it is difficult to control the quantity of wine poured in each glass and make the pourings consistent. Theft and other misuse of the wine is also difficult to track.
Accordingly, and improved beverage dispensing system for dispensing an environmentally sensitive beverage, such as wine, is desired.